Edgar Charles Chiniquy Blackman [1743] ¹

  Burial Notes:

Church of England Cemetery, Mudgee.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Newspaper: The Sydney Morning Herald, 1878 Nov 12, Sydney, Cumberland County, New South Wales. Apparently the middle name is after this fellow:

EX-PRIEST CHINIQUY. (1878, November 12). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842-1954), p. 3. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13423037>
EX-PRIEST CHINIQUY.
Yesterday evening ex-priest Chiniquy delivered an address in St. George's Church, in connection with the Synod of Eastern Australia. There was a crowded con- gregation. The Rev. Hugh Livingstone, the Moderator, presided, and, after the singing of a psalm and prayer, the chairman introduced the Rev. Mr. Chiniquy. He stated that the subject of his address was the working of Romanism and Protestantism contrasted in their in- fluence on society and the salvation of men. The subject was deep and vast as the ocean which surrounded thein. Within the past 400 years there were two grand armies arraigned in battle fighting in the presence of God and man, dividing the civilized world into two camps Romanism and Protestantism. He sought to examine this subject conscientiously and honestly, and free from passion. Of course a Roman Catholic would say that Romanism was best, and a Protestant would say his system was the best. But he must not go to men to know tho truth. He had studied this subject in books, and ho had studied it in the wide world-in Europe and America. He would speak of his own country, Canada, first. No country was so thoroughly Roman Catholic as Lower Canada. Though it was possessed of great natural resources, within the past twenty-five years, no fewer than 500,000 people had been forced to emigrate to the United States, and become servants to the Americans, and occupy inferior positions in life. The result was to-day, that in Lower Canada, there wore not more than 1,200,000 poor, miserable wretched in- habitants. But let them cross the frontier, and go to the United States, established by men who read tho Bible. In Canada you would not find the Bible, probably, in more than one house ia five hundred. Well, in the United States there were 42,000,000 people, marching at the head of the civilized world, the most prosperous country in the world, after England-the most intelligent country under heaven. But his poor countrymen were deprived of learn- ing, of strength, of power, of head, of everything that would make a people strong, well, and happy. Why was it that one country was so prosperous and the other so backward ? There was no other reason than this, that the inhabitants of the United States wero Protestants, and those of Lower Canada were Roman Catholics. He charged the Roman Catholic priests with having corrupted public morals, killed the intelligence of his countrymen by keeping their minds in fetters. Well, having studied this subject in his owu-country ho crossed over to Ireland. He went te, Protestant Ulster, nnd there he saw manufacture
at work, crops flourishing, and everything prosperous, the people wearing cheerful and happy faces. Ho felt that Christ, the son of righteousness, was ruling there, Then he crossed to Connaught-not very far ; but, while this place had the same laws, he found the people poor and wretched, their homes being dirty and destitute. The Irishman, naturally with a heart of good will, and possess- ing the greatest bravery and eloquence, was degraded to the level of a brute by the Roman Catholic religion. Before the priest he became the greatest coward and lost his eloquence.
He thus lost his manhood and forgot his noble intel- ligence. If the Irish people would forsake the Roman Catholic religion and accept Christ, he could almost pledge his soul that they would become before long the brightest gem of the British people. But they were kept poor and
degraded by the priest. Those who were not poor were compelled to show poverty, lest the priest should come as a landshark to take their property from them. Well, from; Ireland he crossed to France, and there he saw work going on on the Sabbath, and no signs of a Sabbath and Christianity. France was a Roman Catholic country, and
had persecuted the Protestants, killed many of them, and destroyed the Churches. Well, through that country he could not go without shedding tears at the evidences of the ruins of Christianity. He went to five of the churches and there were very few people. Ho counted fifty-two men and seventy;five women in one, and ten men and twenty-five women in another. The next day he went to some; public works which Napoleon was constructing, and spoke to some of the working men. He asked them why they did not attend church, and one of them answered, We do not understand Latin ; we have nothing to do with that." The man had no religion. Why was that ? Because the Roman Catholic Church had fed that people with the principles of a religion which were con- trary to the human conscience. France had been made to flow with rivers of human blood. The people had been taught to shed blood by the priests, and many thousands of these priests had become the victims of their own teaching.
The Church of Rome was red with the blood of millions in France. Then he went to Switzerland. In the Protestant Cantons he found neatness and beauty everwhere. Everything was smiling, and the people were happy, cheerful, and industrious. The churches wera filled with people on the Sabbath day. Afterwards he went to the Roman Catholio cantons, and there he saw homes desolated by misery, dirtiness, by poverty, by the want of industry. Everything seemed to indicate that you had travelled 500 miles since leaving the Protestant canton. What made the difference in this same people, speaking the same language, refreshed by the same breezes? There was no other cause of difference except that in tho one case the Bible was read by the people, nnd in the other it was not. Wherever Roman Catholicism was planted you were sure to see death to independence, industry, and happiness; while, on the other hand, the tendency of Protestantism was to make people holy and good. A book had heed written by a Scotchman, the title of which was, "The More Priests the More Crimes." Every page of it was true, but the writer was decoyed away from his home on the pretense of visiting a sick person and was murdered. To Botany Bay there were two Roman Catholics, or nearly two, sent to every one Protestant, although were were five or eight or ten Protestants to every Roman Catholic in Great Britain. Why was it that in Roman Catholic Ireland there were more murders than in the whole British world beside? Why was it that in their gaols there were more Roman. Catholics than Protestants ? It was due to religion. The manhood and self-respect of Roman Catholics was destroyed by his submission to the priest. But the communion of a Protestant with his God-an article: of his religion-raised and elevated him. He referred to the evils of auricular confession, contending that it de- graded men and women. In conclusion he urged his hearers, to exhibit goodwill towards Roman Catholics, and to pray for them. The Rev. Mr. Chiniquy was repeatedly ap- plauded during the course of his address. The Rev. Mr. Sutherland having said a few words, the proceedings were closed with the benediction.

• Registration: Marriage, 1967, Mudgee District, New South Wales, Australia. ⁴ 15765/1967
BLACKMAN, EDGAR CHARLES
ROBERT
JANE
MUDGEE

• Obituary, 1967 Mar 15. ⁵ BLACKMAN
Edgar Charles
Obituary
14MAR1967
Death
88
at Mudgee District Hospital, late of Mudgee
Mudgee Guardian
15MAR1967

• Burial. ⁶ Blackman
Edgar Charles

13 Mar 1967
88y
son/Robert & Jane; with Letitia May
Mudgee General <http://austcemindex.com/cemetery.php?id=64>
Ang
T

Edgar married Letitia May Wales [1744] [MRIN: 452], daughter of Unknown and May [34407], in 1910 in Auckland, , , New Zealand.¹ (Letitia May Wales [1744] was born about 1887 in Auckland, , , New Zealand,¹ died on 1961 May 30 in Mudgee, Wellington County, New South Wales, Australia ³ and was buried in Mudgee Cemetery, Wellington County, New South Wales, Australia ³.)